Explanatory note

Section 3AA(1) of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 (“the 1993 Act”) provides Scottish Ministers with the power to release a prisoner on licence. Such a release requires to be subject to a curfew condition (and is commonly known as a release on home detention curfew) (section 12AA of the 1993 Act). Section 3AA(2) provides that Scottish Ministers cannot exercise that power before the prisoner has served one quarter of their sentence. Subsection (3) provides that a short-term prisoner may be released on licence at any point in the period which begins 180 days (i.e. 166 days plus 14 days) before they are otherwise entitled to be released under Part 1 of that Act and ends 14 days before that point is reached. A long-term prisoner may be released on licence during the period which begins 180 days before they have served one-half of their sentence and ends 14 days before that point is reached.

Article 2(1) of this Order amends section 3AA(2) of the 1993 Act to provide that the proportion of sentence that a prisoner must serve before being able to be released under section 3AA(1) is changed from one quarter of the prisoner’s sentence to 15% of the prisoner’s sentence.

Article 2(2) of this Order amends the period specified in section 3AA(3) of the 1993 Act. That is the period during which the Scottish Ministers may, under section 3AA(1) of that Act, release a prisoner on home detention curfew.

The period during which a prisoner can be released on such a licence is therefore increased from 180 days to 210 days (i.e. 196 days plus 14 days).